Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
147).
Were there others whose names are not well-known but who played an important role in the abolitionist movement? According to author Harvey J. Kaye, the co-editor of "Freedom's Journal" was an African-American named Samuel Cornish. Kaye writes (p. 147) that Cornish also launched his own abolitionist newspaper, "The Rights of All." Another free black man, David Walker, from North Carolina, was "apparently moved by the Bible, the egalitarian spirit of the Declaration of Independence, and the revolutionary example of Paine's "Common Sense," started his own pamphlet that called on black slaves to "rise up against their white oppressors" (Kaye, p. 148). The pamphlet launched by Walker was called: "An Appeal, in Four Articles, Together with a Preamble, to the Colored Citizens of the World, but in Particular and Very Expressly to Those of the United States of America" (Kaye, p. 148).
What were the original goals of the antislavery movement? According to Kaye's book the movement initially was designed to "Repatriate' manumitted slaves to Africa" (p. 149). The American Colonization Society (in 1822) advocated that slaves be freed and sent to Liberia, but "such schemes were attacked both by southerners (who opposed any kind of freedom for slaves) and by black and white northerners" (who saw the idea as "unjust and wrong-headed") (Kaye, p. 149).
What was the name of the most influential anti-slavery group in the early 1800s? The American Anti-Slavery Society operated as a religious group, beginning in 1831; the society recruited "zealous young men" with ministerial training to "preach the cause and convert Americans to it," Kaye explained (p. 149). What this did was create "a powerful southern pro-slavery movement" and also it created "hostility and occasionally mob violence in the North," Kaye's book explains. People in the North who opposed the American Anti-Slavery Society "fearfully imagined masses of uneducated black workers flooding their cities"; however, the passion of the preachers and others who carried the cause forward led to the growth of the membership to 250,000 by the end of the 1820s (Kaye p. 149).
Conclusion: It is clear from the literature that the abolitionist movement involved many people -- perhaps most of them of African descent -- who were passionately opposed to slavery,...
The heroes in this movement were not just people like Frederick Douglass and David Walker and the well-known leaders like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. The unsung heroes were people like Joseph Goodrich from Milton, Wisconsin, who risked prison to help fugitive slaves move safely north to new lives and jobs. The history of the abolitionist movement should be required reading not only in African-American history classes, but in all history classes in high school and at the university level.
Works Cited
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave.
Charleston, SC: Forgotten Books, 1845.
Kaye, Harvey J. Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. New York: Macmillan, 2006.
Lamme, Ary J. "Commemorative Language in Abolitionist Landscape Texts: New York's 'Burned-Over District'." Southeastern Geographer 48.3 (2008): 356-373.
Milton House Museum. "Joseph Goodrich's Milton House and the Underground Railroad.
Retrieved Nov. 25, 2009, from http://www.miltonhouse.org.
Santoro, Gene. "Steven Hahn Sings the Slaves Triumphant." American History. 44.2 (2009):
18-19.
Williams-Myers, A.J. "The Underground Railroad in the Hudson River Valley: A Succinct
Historical Composite. Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, 27.1 (2003): 55-74.
Steven Hahn, "Steven Hahn Sings the Slaves Triumphant," American History 44.2 (2009): 18-20. Interview by Gene Santoro.
A.J. Williams-Myers, "The Underground Railroad in the Hudson River Valley: a succinct historical composite," Afro-Americans in New York Life and History 27.1 (2003), 55-74.
Milton House Museum. "Joseph Goodrich's Milton House and the Underground Railroad." Retrieved Nov. 25, 2009, from http://www.miltonhouse.org.
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Charleston, South Carolina: Forgotten Books, (1845).
Ary J. Lamme III, "Commemorative Language in Abolitionist Landscape Texts: New York's 'Burned-Over District." Southeastern Geographer, 48.3, (2008): 356-373.
Harvey J. Kaye, Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. New York: Macmillan, 2006.
Works Cited
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave.
Charleston, SC: Forgotten Books, 1845.
Kaye, Harvey J. Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. New York: Macmillan, 2006.
Lamme, Ary J. "Commemorative Language in Abolitionist Landscape Texts: New York's 'Burned-Over District'." Southeastern Geographer 48.3 (2008): 356-373.
Retrieved Nov. 25, 2009, from http://www.miltonhouse.org.
Milton House Museum. "Joseph Goodrich's Milton House and the Underground Railroad." Retrieved Nov. 25, 2009, from http://www.miltonhouse.org.
The hierarchical society, which characterized the new nation, was another aspect, which would soon be transformed. "The political rulers had come largely from the social elites. The churches were supported by those elites. and, in most cases, the churches had been officially sanctioned by the political structures of the states. Social, political, and religious authority had been tightly interwoven in the same small group of elite leaders." [ Ira Chernus] the
black women contribute to the early abolitionist movement? What types of restrictions did women (both white and black) face in American society at this point? Why did more people at this point accept the idea of freeing blacks than giving women equal rights and opportunity? American women, black and white, were prohibited from voting in both the antebellum Northern and Southern states. Yet African-American women still played a prominent role
American Revolution New American History is full of many relevant events that have made a significant impact on the American History. Despite all the relevant things, it should be noted that America itself might not have been conceived if it had not been for the struggles that took place in the American Revolution. It was the starting point of the American history and the time when people were beginning to find
American Slavery in the 1800s Any discussion of 19th century American history that omits slavery is incomplete, because slavery was such a significant fact of life during that time period that it impacted all people, whether slave or free, and whether they lived in a slave state or a state that prohibited slavery. The impact of slavery on the people of the United States during that time period was multi-faceted and
The overall oppression of women in American society unfortunately reflected worldwide trends and therefore was not entirely nefarious; in most countries in Europe women were likewise unable to vote until the very end of the nineteenth or early twentieth century. However, the treatment of African-Americans has been deplorable throughout American history and is perhaps the largest stain on American democratic principles. The United States allowed slavery to persist within its
Alexander Hamilton carried on an affair with the wife of "a notorious political schemer," Maria Reynolds. Andrew Jackson married Rachel Jackson before her divorce from Lewis Robards was finalized and therefore was accused of marrying a married woman. Jackson's opponent in 1828, John Quincy Adams, was in turn accused of "corrupt bargaining" during his term. Jackson also championed Margaret O'Neill Timberlake, who married his secretary of war, John Eaton.